Damn You
by Prosper-the-XVIII
Summary: When a fighting training camp goes badly wrong, Astrid must make things up to Ruff or loose her best friend forever. Mainly about Ruffnut and Astrid, but not slash. Mild RuffnutxHiccup


**Okay, Sigrid and Spitelout are two of my OCs. Both came to Berk after dragons were trained, and Sigrid goes out with Fishlegs (find out how they met in my first one-shot, Kill me, Love me) Prosper is my main OC; she's Hiccup's older sister by about 10 years, and she used to help Gobber out with Dragon Training until she was needed more in raids. Thora is Astrid's older sister, another OC. **

**n.b: I'm not exactly a huge HicStrid fan, so, for the purpose of this story, Astrid and Hiccup are cousins on Hiccup's mum's side.**

Pain. Fatigue. Ruffnut's muscles cried out for rest, but she was loving every second of the fight, her adrenalin filled blood pumping happily through her body.

She had been in the arena since dawn, fighting and beating various people. The fishtail braid hanging down her back was soaked with sweat, her shirt reeked. Now, it was down to her, Astrid and Hiccup, her new boyfriend. Sigrid hadn't turned up, she had broken her foot three days ago. Spitelout had gone home in a huff after Snotlout started trying to stick his hands where they had absolutely no business. 'Lout could be disgusting in that kind of way. Come to think of it, he got like that with anything in a short skirt when he wasn't in a relationship. Tuffnut had left after being wounded by Ruffnut. It was more of a scratch than anything else, was barely bleeding and, in truth, Ruff had seen worse paper cuts, but he had insisted that it hurt like hell, so went home. She kind of felt bad about Fishlegs. She had fractured his wrist or something, as she had locked their swords together and twisted her arm round 360 degrees, something she could do easily; Ruffnut was crazy flexible, but Fishlegs had left after saying that he couldn't feel or move his arm. She comforted herself by thinking that he deserved it (Fishlegs had an obnoxious thing about not hitting girls. Ruffnut showed him what girls can hit back like given the opportunity.) Snotlout had lost interest and gone home about five minutes ago. It was just hitting dusk, and she was currently in the middle of a fight with Astrid in the half-light, with axes, both of their strongpoints. Hiccup stood, shouting encouragement from the side. Ruff was putting every ounce of fight still in her into threw heavy blows at Astrid left, right and centre, but Astrid parried every one with annoying ease. Astrid hadn't been there on the practice sessions the past few days, on account of a pulled Achilles tendon; a little muscle in the back of your ankle that hurts like hell if you do anything to it, but she had turned up today, and had mainly been against Hiccup, who could barely lift an axe, let alone fight with one, so she wasn't even tired. Ruff, on the other hand, had been in ten fights and won every single one, but it was tiring and exhaustion was about to get the better of her, but the adrenalin rush she got when fighting was so amazing that she didn't want to stop. Ever.

A rip of agony in Ruffnut's leg sent her falling, her head hitting the rough gritty stone of the floor in the arena, landing on the side of her chest, winding her. She looked up at Astrid helplessly. She couldn't stand up. She knew the feeling. She felt something warm dribbling down her leg, but the acute, nagging, overwhelming pain in her shin could mean only one thing. Her leg was almost definitely broken. She panicked when it occurred to her that her leg may no longer be there, as apparently for a small period of time after loosing a limb you could still feel it's presence, and the sensation was similar to that of what she was feeling right now. Phantom pain, she had once heard Hiccup call it. He had had personal experience with that sort of thing. With Hiccup's aid, she sat up,after she got her breath back, and saw the extent of the injury to her leg. It was still there, thank Thor, but still pretty messed up. It was bent completely in half in the middle of her shin, and she could see a few shards of gleaming white shinbone poking up through the big, bloody gash in her leg. Astrid had hit her with the axe, wounding her, then whacked her with the flat bit of the axehead, shattering her leg and knocking her over. It would heal…probably, but she would be pretty much useless for the next couple of months.

Astrid stared at the bloody axe in her hand.

"Oh gods. Ruff...I...I'm so sorry! Are you-how do you feel?"

"Hurt," Ruffnut said with a light hint of malice in her voice. Astrid didn't seem to realise that asking Ruff if she was okay when her foot was the wrong way round was a bit of an understatement. It was like, say, watching your best friend get torn limb from limb then eaten by a Monstrous Nightmare and asking; "Is he dead?" When Ruff saw the expression on Astrid's face she quickly added; "Look, don't panic, I'm not blaming you or anything."

A BIT LATER IN THE THORSTON HOUSE...

"Honest to goodness, Tuffnut!" his father, Loudmouth the Gouty roared. He was telling his son off in the Thorston family living room, Emerald watching with green, hawklike eyes, his older brother, Tor foraging in the kitchen for something to eat, and Tor's twin, Merciless, was perched on the table, doing her nails, neither really paying attention. Loudmouth continued ranting.

"Your SISTER, for gods' sake is still out there fighting her pretty little butt off, yet you came home early because of a little scratch! What in the name of Hel's Underworld are you playing at!? C'mon, you're a MAN for Valhalla's sake, would it kill you to act like one- sorry, Em!" he said to his wife, Emerald. Emerald was the general of a women's only Viking army, and was a feminist long before the word was invented. She was looking daggers at her husband.

"Aaannnyyyway," Loudmouth continued. "I mean, us Thorstons are supposed to be TOUGH, I mean, did you ever think about the first syllable of your name? TUFFnut! You shouldn't-"

At that moment, the door burst open, revealing Hiccup and Astrid, supporting a broken-legged, bleeding Ruffnut between them.

"What in Thor's name happened!?" exclaimed Emerald, jumping out of her seat and running across the room to her daughter. Her two friends helped lower Ruffnut into a seat, then a rather agitated and jumpy Hiccup explained what had happened. Astrid was unusually quiet, sitting twiddling her thumbs. This was pretty weird; Astrid generally never stopped talking, but Emerald let this wash over her. She grabbed a sheet from a pile waiting to be washed, and began mopping up the messy wound in Ruff's leg, trying and failing to straighten out the broken bit as she went. She was trained to handle common battle injuries, like the big wound in Ruff's leg, but the rest was totally beyond her abilities. She eventually gave up and said;

"I know quite a bit about wounds, but possible concussions and broken legs aren't really my forte. Astrid, go and get your mum, she'll know what to do."

Astrid's mum, Faye, ran the Hospital Hut in the village. You want to know what it was for, the clue's pretty much in the name. Astrid flew off, sprinting towards her house. Emerald, Loudmouth and Hiccup were crowded around Ruffnut, who had pretty much come to her senses, as her head had been knocked around a bit and she probably had a very mild concussion, and started talking to her family and friends weakly.

"How do you feel?" Emerald asked Ruffnut.

"Dizzy. Sore. Tired. Kinda irritated with Astrid…"

She tailed off as Astrid and Faye entered the room.

"Irritated with me for what, exactly?" the malicious undertone in Astrid's voice indicated hostility and 'don't make me mad, or you'll get damaged.' Ruffnut weighed her words and responded with;

"Please remind me who just broke my leg. That might give you a hint."

"That wasn't my fault and you know it."

"Oh yeah, then whose was it?"

"You were trying to KILL me!"

"Come off it, you just don't like the idea of losing. You almost killed me!"

The girls got into a furious shouting match, until Faye told Astrid to go home and rest, she looked beaten up from the day's training. Tuffnut was still standing in the corner, arms folded, paying no attention to his injured sister or the girl teen drama playing out in front of him. If there was one thing that Ruff knew, it was that she would never forgive Astrid. On her hero's honour, she wouldn't. Neverevereverever.

THE NEXT DAY…

Ruffnut sat on the bench in the arena, sandwiched in between Sigrid and Fishlegs. Her leg was still utter agony, but she had dragged herself to the arena on crutches, to watch Tuffnut make an idiot of himself, and see if it was only her best friend that Astrid had a stab at murdering. Astrid didn't turn up for some reason. Not like her, she loved messing around with weapons, and spent half her life in the woods maiming trees. Oh well, it didn't matter. One less arrogant git to worry about.

Sigrid had missed three days of the training programme with a badly broken foot, and, confirming Ruffnut's suspicion, Fishlegs had his right arm bandaged and in a sling. Ruffnut's broken leg stuck out awkwardly in front of her, but apparently the plaster that it was covered in to keep it straight would heal it better. Fishlegs had his nose buried in a book, Sigrid was doodling in a little notebook with a stick of charcoal, but all Ruff could do was sit and watch the fighting. It hadn't occurred to her how boring this got after a while. No wonder her parents had stopped coming ages ago. If it had been up to her what she did with her day, she would have rather kissed a toilet seat and eaten cold puke than done this. You didn't get nearly as much of a thrill watching as you did participating.

"Hey, lil' sis!" a familiar voice said.

"Hi Tor." Ruff didn't make eye contact with her older brother. He was always off on some loopy quest, and whenever he showed himself, it was utter chaos in the Thorston household. He pretty much looked like a taller version of Tuffnut, with shorter hair, a scar down his lip and one ear pierced with a hooked dragon fang. Ruffnut fiddled with the tip of one of her braids. She had had long hair for as long as she could remember, and it would've been even longer if Tuff hadn't cut the ends off it when they were about six. It almost reached her shins when it was all brushed out and fluffy. Tuffnut thought her obsession with her hair was weird, how she made a big thing of brushing it out every night, only to braid it all up again in the morning, but it was necessary with the amount of it she had. Anyway, he was the one who was weird about his hair. Vain. That was the word for him. Disgustingly vain. Really, hair his length untied would just be a hazard in battle. She thought about sneaking into his room in the night and cutting it off, that would show him. Then it occurred that her own hair may be at risk if she did.

"Ruff?" Tor snapped Ruffnut out of her daydream. "Sooo, what happened this time? Last year was rubbish. Any bloodshed this time round?"

The twenty-day annual fighting training camp was the only time when trainees could fight with no covers on their weapons, so casualties were common.

"Well," Ruff said. It was always good getting all the juicy little details in before Tuff came to brag about his so-called amazing skills (or rather his lack of them. ) "Sigrid crushed her foot on the first day. Then I broke Fishlegs' wrist or something. Then Astrid did this." Ruff extended her leg, and Tor was suddenly interested. "What exactly is this?"

"Well, a combination of a broken shin, massive axe-wound - you could actually see inside my leg! It was totally gross though, I lost count of the number of stitches I needed - and I've got this massive bruise on my thigh that looks JUST like a killer whale. See?"

Ruff pulled her skirt up a little and showed Tor.

"Wow."'he said."What colour is that?"

THAT NIGHT...

Ruffnut was crashed out on the couch, slender arm thrown over her face, legs up on the coffee table, one of her four younger sisters, Briarthorn, sitting on the floor behind Ruffnut, mucking around with her hair. Briar hated nights, or rather going to bed.

Usually Ruffnut enjoyed the feeling of a post-battle body. Pain, in other words. Ruff had never had a problem with pain because it usually meant she'd had a good day. But not this time. Her exhausted muscles could barely be bothered to shift her arm off her face, even though she had long since lost feeling in both of them, let alone drag her whole body up the stairs.

"Briar, it's late, go to bed," she told her little sister firmly.

The twelve year old moaned, but obediently trudged up the stairs. Being the oldest responsible kid in the Thorston household gave Ruffnut a certain degree of authority over her six younger siblings (she was the dominant twin out of herself and Tuff, having been born 21 minutes earlier, and she had four little sisters, one little brother, two nieces, a twin brother who was marginally younger than her and a nephew)

Someone knocked at the door.

"Tuff! Door!"

"I'm on the toilet!"

"Then get it when you're finished!"

"I'm crapping!"

"Good to know!" then, to whoever was at the door, " It's open!

Ruffnut let herself fall back onto the sofa as the massive figure of Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe, walked into the room, muttering about the idiocy of Baggybum the Beerbelly, his second-in-command and younger brother.

"Hello Ruff," he said. "Your dad about? I think the Outcasts might be about to declare war or something; they sent a letter to Baggybum for some stupid reason, and I keep asking him about it, but I can't get a straight answer out of him. Your father's his best mate, if he's told anyone, it'll be him."

"Nope, he's been out for ages, the kids are in bed, mum went to some council of war meeting, Tor's with her, I've got no idea where Merciless is and Tuff's on the loo. I'm the only one here."

"Alright - wait, council of war? Called that off last Tuesday, your mum mustn't have got the word. Dammit, I need to use someone else as messenger, Hugefarts is about as reliable as a spoon. Hey, what happened to you?" Stoick planted his bum on the sofa, and noticed Ruff's leg.

"You want the short version or the long?"

"Short would be nice."

"Ok. Astrid. Fight. Axe. Whack. Snap. I'm surprised Hiccup hasn't told you, he saw the whole thing."

"Okay...yowch, sounds painful. Look, I'd better go, I left Hiccup in charge of dinner and I think he might burn the house down if I leave him any longer."

"Right. Tell Hiccup to feel free to come round any time, but, on pain of death, don't bring Astrid."

"Right. I'll try remember that. Tell your dad to come see me once he's home."

As Stoick left, Ruffnut thought about what Stoick had said. People were always talking about looming war these days. Ruff had no sworn enemies, and was perfectly happy for it to stay that way, but the prospect of a bloody battle made her want to smash someone's head in just thinking about it. Provided that whoever was declaring war held it off until in about two months time. Not because she was worried or anything, but by that point she should have regained use of her right leg.

Tuff sauntered down the stairs, sheet of toilet roll stuck to his foot. She decided not to tell him about this. Ruffnut shot him a dirty look. "What?" he asked.

"Thanks for the graphic detail there."

Tuff ignored this comment and sat beside Ruffnut, putting his hand on her thigh.

"You know, when you came in with Hiccup and Astrid, that was totally sick, but you didn't moan, cry, scream or anything. How is that possible?"

"We all know you couldn't do it, drama queen. Really, I think I had a bit of a concussion or something, I couldn't really feel it."

Tuff sighed. "Figures."

"What?"

" I heard you throwing up the other night."

"Thanks for letting me know. I think I might start telling you whenever you fart during the night." she jokingly punched Tuff on the shoulder.

"Hey, what does it feel like? Y'know, to break something?"

"Hey, I could show you if you like!"

Tuff inched away, looking at his sister like she was a three-headed alien.

"Just kidding!" Ruffnut laughed, and put her hand on his. "It's…well I can't really describe it.…you really have to experience it to get how it feels, it's just…sore. But really sore, you can't imagine it until its actually happened. It really is a pain in the butt getting up stairs or standing up and junk."

"Really, it's not advised then?"

FIVE DAYS LATER...

"This feeling stinks." Astrid was sitting with her boots on the sofa, generally being moody. For the first time since Ruff had broken her leg, Astrid had been in the arena, but two hours, three fights and a dislocated shoulder later, she was back home, moping. "Astrid, shoes off the couch!" Her mum said. Astrid ignored her.

"Well, it should." Thora said moodily. "You mucked up, and you've not even said sorry. If Ruff hates you, then I really don't blame her." Astrid pulled her boot off and threw it across the room at her sister. Thora didn't duck in time and blood from her bust lip sprayed everywhere. "THORA! ASTRID!" Faye shouted across the room at her daughters. " NOT HELPING!"

"WE WERE ALL THINKING IT!" Thora screamed as she stormed up the stairs. Astrid dropped her head to her knees miserably. Faye sat down beside her. Astrid tried to shrug off the arm that her mother placed round her shoulder.

"Astrid. Look, you need to say something to Ruff or make it up to her, or, face it, you've just lost your best friend."

"Tried that the other day." Astrid said, hugging her knees. She had seen Ruff a couple days ago, and tried to say sorry, but Ruffnut was clearly having none of it. Astrid had a sudden brainwave. She didn't like the idea in the slightest, but if it meant the difference between her and Ruff being friends or enemies, then she would do it.

Picking up her other boot, putting it on, she grabbed her axe as she went out the door.

As she walked to the arena, she realised that she needed to be way less boisterous in training. Every year, she seemed to badly injure someone. When she started on the programme two years ago, she had kicked Sigrid in the ribs, cracking three of them. They did a different type of fighting every year and that particular time had been hand-to-hand combat. The next time, she had dislocated Snotlout's thumb and broken three of his fingers. However, he had been hitting on her the whole day, so had sorta been asking for it. That year had been swordfighting. And now she'd broken Ruff's leg and today dislocated Spitelout's shoulder. She hit herself in the forehead. What was WRONG with her? She was aware of her own strength, that wasn't the reason, but she, or rather her tough-girl exterior always was too vicious, and really just stuck her boot in things all the time. She reached the doors of the arena, and let out a deep breath. Entering through the vast double-doors, she walked into the centre and hit her shin hard with the blade of her axe. She retched and almost threw up with shock. She grabbed her shin, and pain burned up her leg. The awful soreness was overwhelming and there was so much BLOOD. Why in the name of Hel's Underworld was she doing this? Ignoring the pain in her leg, she turned her axe around so the flat bit of the axehead was parallel to her wounded shin, and whacked herself with every bit of her strength. The crack as her shinbone snapped made her feel even sicker and agony exploded in her whole lower half. She hit the ground and let out a long, pained scream.

"Why…the hell…did I just do that?" She asked herself out loud.

2AM THE NEXT DAY...

Ruff pulled the hair that had gotten into her mouth as she was sleeping out and sat up on the couch. The first thought that came into her head was 'I gotta pee.' Getting up and manoeuvring herself out of the house on crutches, she set out to the communal toilets in the village.

After doing what she came out to do, Ruff decided to go for a bit of a wander. When she eventually came to the arena, she almost cried out. "Oh. My. Gods." Ruff said, almost overbalancing on her crutches. "What the…"

"Ruff...help. P-please..." Astrid groaned. Her voice was thick, as if she'd been crying, and as far as Ruff could see in the half light, the injury to Astrid's leg was fairly major, and ridiculously similar to the one Astrid had inflicted on her three days earlier. Ruff had no idea what was going on. "Ruffnut…look, I-I'm sorry. Just…it's agony. Help me…"

FOUR DAYS LATER...

Astrid took a tentative step on her crutches, then fell over, more out of panic than lack of balance. Thora hauled her up under the armpits, and told her firmly to try again. If there was one thing that Astrid didn't do well, it was standing up or walking - well, limping - on broken or injured legs. 'Astrid, you are possibly the biggest idiot ever to grace the planet.' She thought to herself. However, she was more-or-less ok, as was her and Ruffnut's friendship. She had to hand it to herself for saving their relationship, then again, the relationship wouldn't have needed saving if it wasn't for her. Still, all was well, and that was all that mattered…

SIX WEEKS LATER...

Ruffnut picked at a scab on her elbow. Tuff was out on the dragons with Snotlout, and, her broken leg still not healed yet, she was stuck in the house with the whirlwind of crazy that was her younger siblings. Tor and her father were away doing...well, actually, she didn't know. Merciless was helping Prosper and Thora with a sword fighting class for a bunch of eight year olds. Their mother was at some war meeting thingy. Boredom was the one thing on Ruff's mind. Seriously, she very seldom picked at scabs, so must've been pretty fed up to have lowered herself to doing something typical of her moronic twin brother.

At that moment in the house, the third and youngest set of twins in the Thorston household were having a cat fight on the floor. The pair, both twelve year old girls this time named Briarthorn and Sparkflame, had managed somehow to break the same wrist at the same time in the same place in the same way four days ago, but they had still found some way to amuse themselves. Carnage and Sting, the boy and girl closest to Ruff in age, Sting was thirteen and Carnage ten, were having some dumb argument, Sting starting to get physical and scratching her brother's arm with her talon-like fingernails. There was actually a little blood, but Ruff ignored it. Storma and Termagant, the two youngest girls, were rolling about on the couch next to Ruff. Storma landed right bang smack on Ruffnut's injured leg, which was still slightly painful.

"OUCH! For Thor's sake, Storma, I said DON'T do that! Seriously, would you two cut that out someone's gonna wind up getting-" Ruff yelled. She was cut off by a loud 'crack!' before she could get the word 'hurt' out, followed by a scream as Sting hit the floor, grabbing her shoulder.

"Whatever happened to her, I didn't do it!" Carnage said quickly. However, Ruff could tell that he knew he had hurt his sister badly, as his voice went really high-pitched; it did that whenever he was lying.

"Hey, Ruff, Tuffnut told me you were here alone, I thought I'd...oh." Hiccup walked in and saw Sting rolling about on the carpet, screaming her head off.

"Hi. In case you didn't notice, this isn't really a great time." Ruff stood up one one leg, and hobbled over to her younger sister. Ruffnut hugged Sting and made little shushing sounds. "You're okay, Sting, calm down…"

Sting looked up at Ruff, tear tracks running gown her face. "I'm - not -okay, my arm - flipping -HURTS!" Sting shouted between gulping sobs. The first thing you needed to know about Sting; she handles pain LOUDLY. Just thought you ought to know. Hiccup knelt down beside her had gently pulled her hand away from her shoulder.

"Sting." He said quietly. "Look, I'm just going to check if your arm is broken. It might hurt a little, but please don't try and make my ears bleed again." Hiccup gently twisted Sting's arm around a bit, and came to the conclusion that it was dislocated, but not broken. Easier and quicker to heal, fortunately for her.

"Hey guys, I'm back...woah, what the hell happened?!" Tor said coming into the room.

"Long story. Sting and Carnage were fighting and Carnage managed to dislocate Sting's shoulder or something-"

"DID NOT!" Carnage yelled indignantly.

"Really? Then who was it?" Ruffnut smacked her little brother on the back of his head. Carnage tried to punch his sister back, but sixteen years of fighting Tuffnut had given her quick reflexes and she swiftly dodged backwards, the ten year old only succeeding in jarring her elbow.

"Ach, you're JOKING!" Tor yelled, scooping a still screaming Sting up and running out of the house with her.

"Em, Ruff, it's clearly not a brilliant time, I think I'll just go." Hiccup said, walking out.

Ruffnut managed to get hold of one of her crutches, and turned to her brother.

"I'm in poop, aren't I?" He said, shrinking when he saw his sister's stern expression.

"DEEP poop. I've told you, Tor's told you, Merciless has told you, mum and dad have told you, the twins have told you, for Thor's sake, even Storma and Termagant have told you and Tuff's told you, even though me and Tuff seriously have no right to, considering we grew up tearing at each other's necks, DON'T fight with your sister or one of you is gonna get hurt. Now what if that had been you? And even though she's such a girl-"

"So are you..." Carnage sniggered. Ruffnut cuffed her brother round the head again.

"Oh shut it and quit being smart, you knew what I meant. Anyway, even though Sting's a bit soft, she's still way bigger, faster and stronger than you and she could've inflicted some serious damage if she'd wanted to. Seriously, what were you two arguing about this time?"

"I took Sting's hairbrush..."

"Well, you brought this upon yourself. When dad gets home, you are in HUGE trouble."

"Wha…no!" Carnage breathed. Their father, Loudmouth the Gouty expected obedience from his children. They could be as chaotic and destructive as they wanted, but they would obey. Woe betide you if you were caught doing something like what Carnage did to Sting, and when you break your sister's arm, getting caught is kind of inevitable.

"Oh yes. One way or another he's gonna find out and you'll have to fess up." Storma said. She was only eight, but was as blonde as any of her sisters (well, except for Sting, that is, who was kind of dark tawny like their mother) and could demonstrate all the combined attitude.

"Hey guys!" Came the voice of their father. Termagant, who was a five year old who really suited her name, shall we say, turned to her brother and mouthed; "Busted!"

Their dad continued. "Have you lot seen Sting and Tor? I can't find 'em anywhere."

Ruffnut elbowed her little brother and he said; "Erm, yeah, about that.…It was Termagant's fault! No, that's a lie. We were fighting again and I broke her shoulder. Tor went to the Hospital Hut with her."

"Dislocated." Ruffnut corrected. "She's gonna be okay...theoretically. I've spoken to him already."

Carnage shrunk away from his father, terrified of what he might say.

However, Loudmouth just laughed the way only Vikings can, right from the belly.

"Well, it serves her right. I keep telling the girl to take fight training, but will she listen? No. I have to say, son, you shouldn't have done it, but it serves her right for not learning how to defend herself."

Okay, so parents aren't meant to have favourites, but it was kind of obvious that Sting's decision to stay away from all the bloody fighting that was part of typical Viking lifestyle hadn't exactly made her one of the favourites with their father...

TWO WEEKS LATER...

Ruffnut finished tying her hair into one dutch braid that hung right down her back and ended somewhere just below her waist, and ran downstairs. Termagant was already up and in the living room, chasing the cat around the place. Ruffnut remembered why she had wanted the old moggy when she was nine. Whenever she and Tuff broke anything, she could just blame Hel, which was the shaggy tabby's name. For some reason, the second oldest and youngest girls in the Thorston house had wound up being really early risers. Ruff rolled her eyes, and grabbed an apple out of the fruit basket before running out the door.

She bit into the big red fruit as she dame to the dragon stables, juice gushing down her chin. She hastily wiped it off with the back of one hand, opening the door with the other. It was just approaching dawn, and she was wearing her dragon riding clothes. Blue long-sleeved shirt, fur collar, leggings, boots and her helmet. She had her dragons' saddle under one arm.

"Myne?" She called gently. "Barf?"

The two-headed dragon came running out at the mention of its' names. Myne was Ruff's head, Spitfire (or Fart For Breath, as Ruffnut liked to refer to it) was Tuff's. Myne was ecstatic when she - well, at least Ruffnut assumed that particular head was feminine - saw Ruffnut, nuzzling into her and planting a load of soggy dragon kisses on her face like an overgrown dog with two heads and a whole lot of scales. She stroked Myne, and the dragon shuddered, her twin shuddering along with her. She tied the saddle onto their back and vaulted onto her dragon. In truth, Tuff hated it when she called them HER dragon, but the dragon preferred her. She didn't yell at them the way he did.

Ruffnut stroked the dragon and muttered to it; "Ready, guys?"

The two heads nodded in unison, and they took off. The feeling of the cool morning air against her skin and the breeze in her hair was bliss. Absolute bliss. She stared down at her feet. Good to be wearing both boots again. She realised for the first time how heavy the plaster cast had been. It had been absolute murder getting it off, she could say that. She had ended up with a stupid suntan over the course of about eight weeks, an she had noticed it the previous day. It had been unnaturally warm on Berk for the past several weeks, and she spotted that, although the rest of her was a kind of light caramel colour, from just below her knee to her toes, she was as eerily pale as usual. Still, it felt great to be up on a dragon again...

MEANWHILE...

"Is Ruff out on the dragon?" Tuffnut asked Briar in a bit of a half-slur. He normally slept for ages, but he'd gotten up and dressed early to go out riding with Snotlout. The pair were parked at the table, eating breakfast.

"Do dragons poop in the woods?" Briar said. She was pretty much Ruff in miniature, they had the same hair, eyes and Briar could mimic the sarcastic undertone in Ruffnut's voice almost exactly. She was doing that now.

"No, they don't."

"It's an expression!"

Tuff ignored his annoying little sister.

"Aw, she KNEW I was going riding with 'Lout today!"

"Look, Tuff, show some sympathy, please. She's not been out on the damned thing in two months, for Thor's sake, when she came in the night she broke her leg, it looked like you didn't even care. Look, if you're that desperate, you can use Marsali."

"Em, Miss-in-your-face-I've-got-a-Monstrous-Nightmare, I don't think so. Hey, by the way, why do Ruff and I have to share a dragon and you and Spark don't?"

"Ruff looks after it. At best, you have nothing to do with the thing. Besides, you shouldn't be allowed to be in charge of scissors, let alone an entire dragon. It's really Ruff's, you just use it."

"Rhetorical question. I'm going back to bed." Tuff started stripping there and then, peeling off his tunic. Briar quite liked the way her brother looked without a shirt on, but she knew too well that he slept naked, so blurted our; "Oi, not here, I'm trying to eat thanks very much!"

LATER ON...

"When I TELL you I'm going out on the dragon, it means I'M GOING OUT ON THE DRAGON! How is that so difficult to understand?" Tuff yelled at his sister. She had just come in, her hair and face were damp with sweat and water from the clouds, and she had that flushed, happy look about her that she always got when she had just been on the dragon.

"You never SAID you were going out! I'm not telepathic, I can't read your mind, you gotta tell me these things!" Ruffnut stuck her knee in her brother's groin, and he yanked one of the weird little braids that stuck out at the sides of her head. Within minutes, they, were rolling around on the floor, fighting.

Sting sauntered down the stairs, still in her pyjamas, but when she saw her older siblings, she rolled her eyes and went up again.

Prosper walked inside. "Has anyone seen Merciless - guys, what in the name of Hel's Underworld are you doing? Wait, stupid question. Get up. Get up."

She grabbed each twin by their collar and yanked them both upright. Ruff appeared to have broken her brother's nose; it was a bit squint and gushing blood. Ruffnut was sporting a black eye and fat lip.

"Yeah, guys, y'know, I don't even care. Quit trying to kill each other. Now where's your sister?"

"Which one? I've got seven." Tuffnut said.

"Quit being smart. Unless you think Termagant is capable of teaching a sword fighting class, I'm after Merciless."

THE NEXT DAY...

Ruff sat on the pier, dangling her legs over the side, Astrid beside her. Astrid still had her leg bandaged, and she was sitting picking at her fingernails.

"So, how long now?" Ruff asked her friend.

"Week and two days. It's a total pain in the ass though. It stopped hurting ages ago, I can move it, wound's fine. It's pointless."

"You don't wanna risk it. Remember when Tuff broke my arm? Mum thought it was fine two weeks early and unbound it. Next day, slipped about two feet down the stairs; broke it all over again. It's really fragile for ages after, so it's safer to keep it bound for a few weeks after its healed."

Ruff stood up, and bent to pick up her helmet, which had been sitting beside her. She turned her ankle in the process, and judging by the look on her face, it hurt way more than a twisted ankle had any right to.

"See what I mean?"

"That was deliberate!"

Ruff thought for a bit, and decided not to comment. Instead, she said; "Astrid, you know how after I got hurt, you broke your own leg in exactly the same way? Why did you do that?"

"You thought I did it to you on purpose. I hurt myself deliberately, to prove that it was an accident, and I cared enough to do it to myself, so I could appreciate how you felt. It was stupid, I know, but it doesn't matter, as long as we're still okay."

Ruff smiled. "I suppose it was my fault. I shouldn't have said that I was annoyed at you. I think I knew it was an accident. I just didn't wanna believe it."

Astrid put her hand on Ruff's leg. "You had every right to BE angry. If you had done that to me, I'd probably have murdered you!"

"Astrid, we all know you have anger problems. I mean, look at what you did to Snotlout when he called you sexy."

"He was asking for it!" Astrid pushed Ruff gently, and she overbalanced and fell into the sea. Uh oh, I've done it again, Astrid thought. Then, Ruff's head popped up from under the water, laughing. "Damn you, Astrid!"

As Ruff climbed back up, shaking water out of her hair, she couldn't work out whether she wanted to hug Astrid or punch her lights out. All she knew was that girl drove her insane.


End file.
